GAME STORYLINES» Purdue will look to get above .500 on Saturday when it makes its first-ever visit to Eastern Michigan’s Convocation Center for a 2 p.m. ET contest.

» The Boilermakers, who lead the all-time series with EMU by a 3-0 count, are making their first trip to a MAC arena since playing at Ball State on Dec. 9, 2008.

» The Boilers are facing their second true road test of the season on Saturday, and already have a win at Clemson to their credit; Purdue has won a Big Ten-best 32 true road games since the start of the 2007-08 season.

» Saturday’s contest will feature two teams who have been stout on the defensive end in the early going, as Purdue yields just a 37.8 opponent field goal percentage and EMU is allowing teams to shoot just 37.7 percent from the floor.

» Purdue is coming off of a victory over Lamar in which it held the Cardinals to 30.4 percent shooting from the field and 22.2 percent from beyond the arc.

» Junior Terone Johnson had a game-best 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds against Lamar, knocking down 6-of-12 shots from the field; he posted the first double-double of his career on Dec. 1 against Xavier with 19 points and 10 boards.

» After a slow start, junior Terone Johnson has averaged 16.8 points on 49.0 percent shooting (24-of-49), while adding 6.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists, over Purdue’s last four games.

» Purdue is +10.9 on the glass for the season, and will look to continue its strong rebounding effort on Saturday when it faces an Eastern Michigan team that is +0.8 in the rebounding department this year.

» Purdue is tied for the Big Ten lead with an average of 16.0 offensive rebounds per game, having led or tied in that category in each of its eight games; freshman A.J. Hammons leads the Boilers with an average of 2.5 offensive boards per game, good for eighth in the league.

» Purdue’s aggressiveness on the offensive glass has led to an average margin of +7.0 second-chance points per game; the Boilers are outscoring opponents by a count of 113-57 on second chances this season.

» With nine Purdue players averaging double-digit minutes through seven games, the Boilermakers boast an average bench-scoring margin of +13.6 points per game; the Boilers have slightly more than doubled their opponents’ reserves in the scoring department this season (217-108).

» Hammons has played with poise since moving into the starting lineup for the UNCW game, averaging 9.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game over Purdue’s last four contests.